Fannie, Freddie, and Fur

[Geee]

American Thinker:

n a fascinating book entitled Furs, Fortune, and Empire (New York, 2010), Eric Jay Dolin recounts the entire history of the fur trade in America. Dolin's book is full of interesting stories, one of which involves government's attempted takeover of the fur trade during the early 19th century. The story calls to mind government's intervention in the home mortgage market nearly two centuries later, and for much the same reasons, the government fur operation was a dismal failure.

As Dolin points out, the U.S. government did not enter the fur trade with the idea of making a profit. Its overriding purpose was to protect American Indians, who, as liberals of the day believed, were being cheated by private fur companies. In creating the so-called "factory system," government would organize the fur trade as a nonprofit enterprise. With the advantage of taxpayer subsidies, government agents would then drive the for-profit traders out of business.